Vehicles today provide many features directed toward enhancing the safety of its operators and passengers. A significant and growing issue in vehicle safety relates to concerns about distractions due to the use of portable electronic devices (music players, cell phones, etc.), interactions and conversations among passengers in the vehicle, and driver inexperience, to name a few.
One common cause of vehicular accidents is the neglect of operators to check rear- and side-view mirrors before turning or performing a lane shift. Oftentimes, this neglect stems from either driver inexperience or an event that results in the distraction of the driver.
It would be desirable to provide a way to identify lane shifting events in which a vehicle operator may have neglected to first check his or her surroundings (e.g., by checking a mirror in the vehicle and/or over his or her shoulder for blind spots) and to perform corrective action in the form of a reminder or an automated re-alignment of the vehicle.